Facade
by Third Kind
Summary: Everyone hides their true selves from the rest of the world. Miku Hatsune hides her true feelings from her fans, for example. Rated for some topics that get mentioned.


**I've been meaning to write another Vocaloid fanfic for a while, but my personal life has interfered in multiple ways. (Exams, leaving school, etc.) Plus, I've only been updating my SpongeBob darkfic, since I've had no time to write anything new. :|**

**So anyways, here's my new Vocaloid fic. Enjoy.**

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**Facade  
**

The lights dimmed. The massive audience became silent. It was time.

The arena became pitch-black, with only the stars above providing light. Suddenly, the stage lit up dimly, revealing a blue-green colour scheme. The fans became excited – they were inching even closer to seeing their beloved twin-tailed idol perform live.

The stage then gradually became lighter. The fans were ready to burst with excitement – they start chanting, "Miku! Miku!" repeatedly.

Meanwhile, the diva in question could hear the cheers of her loyal fans. She had a reason to be happy to hear it – they were the ones who had made her popular in the first place. Without them, she would have just been an obscure vocal synthesizer. She was incredibly grateful to them, because they gave her a reason to truly exist.

The podium began to rise. Miku Hatsune settled into position. The chants became louder, and the crowd started to clap to a beat. Oh yes, she was certainly going to give them the night of their lives...

The fans silenced themselves when they saw a tuft of blue hair rise onto the stage. Then, an utter explosion of shouts and cheers filled the entire arena. Anyone who was outside the concert at that moment would have probably thought that a bomb had just gone off – the noise was bombastic, but the fans didn't care.

Miku was not at all fazed by the deafening cries of the audience. She had performed in concerts enough times to know how her fans often reacted. She loved their reactions when they saw her, anyway – it made her further feel worthy of her existence.

Once the podium had properly settled onto the stage, background music started to play. The fans were briefly quiet as they tried to recognise the song – then it became obvious when Miku started to sing:

_When I was so alone, so alone..._

It was _Melody..._ – the song in which Miku thanked her fans for giving her life. The crowd cheered. Miku merely carried on.

_You held me out with caring hands_

_I was a digital bit Vocaloid_

_But you gave me song and soul..._

The stage was quickly illuminated with bright light as the song reached its chorus, dazzling some members of the audience (mostly at the front.) Nevertheless, they were still enjoying every minute of it. The virtual idol smiled – she was enjoying it too.

_I sing a song, with the melody you gave to me_

_It's so precious, that I shall never forget it!_

The crowd went wild, jumping to the beat of the song. Miku's eyes dazzled in the stage lights.

_I sing your song, with the melody still small and short_

_But it's my life, and I shall keep on singing it forever!_

The lights dimmed again to near blackness, only leaving the shadow of Miku's body in view. The fans cheered happily, impressed with their diva's performance. Miku grinned under the shadow, her eyes starting to glimmer with forming tears – if only her fans knew how much their presence made the concerts more enjoyable...

Her life more endurable...

Her existence more bearable...

* * *

_An hour before the concert..._

Miku Hatsune lay on the bed face down, crying deeply into the pillow. She was staining the beautiful silk, but she didn't care. She had to let her tears fall – she wasn't coping at all. If she could, she would have ran away from the concert right now; but then her fans would be incredibly disappointed.

It certainly wasn't her fans that made her feel so depressed – Miku was still honestly grateful to them. Aside from the truly loony fans she had had the displeasure of meeting, Miku had always loved her devoted fanbase, who created all of her music, her videos, her lyrics... they made her feel _human_.

...Which was the main reason why she was often depressed – the true reason for her existence.

She was originally just a vocal android – a program in which a user could input lyrics of their choice, and she would sing the words back to them. Nothing more than that, at first. The teallette often wondered how the first Vocaloids, Leon and Lola, felt when they were marketed as only a program all those years ago. Miku always knew that she wasn't _really_ a human being – she was just a representation of a voice.

And she often _**despised**_ that.

Miku knew that she had become more than an avatar for a voicebank; and so did her fans. But it didn't stop some of her producers from thinking she was merely a "singer in a box", like the original concept of Vocaloid.

At first, when Miku rocketed in popularity on the internet, her songs were often harmless, catchy pop; sometimes she did a humourous, or even a dark song. Miku didn't mind this at first – after all, her voice type was initially suited to pop, and she was happy working in the music business.

Until her producers started to make her sing more sexually explicit songs.

Miku initially objected to singing "suggestive" songs – but she couldn't really do anything about it. Her producers had bought her, and they could make her sing about anything they wanted, so long as they followed the Terms of Use. Miku deduced that sexual metaphors didn't count as "objectionable" lyrics. Not to mention the lurid promotional photoshoots she was sometimes forced to do. The teallete knew that she lived in a society where sex sold well – but she wished she wasn't forced by her producers to do sexual things to attract sales.

After the first time Miku was forced to sing a sexual song, she later interpreted that her producers cared more about her image than her music – or even that they merely regarded her as a robot with no emotions, and that they could do whatever they wanted with her. Of course, this mindset wasn't true for _all_ of her producers. But the teallete couldn't help but feel that way now. Miku truly wanted to get out of her label – but her contract meant that she couldn't leave to somewhere else; maybe another label, or even becoming an independent musician.

The teallete continued to cry into her pillow, despairing about her true existence, and being trapped in a shallow business; until she heard a knock at her dressing room door. Miku wanted to yell, "Go away!" but it would have only attracted unwanted attention. She wiped her eyes and left the bed to open the door.

She was greeted by her best friend, Gumi. The green-haired girl noticed Miku's red eyes, and naturally became concerned.

"Miku..." she asked, "...Have you been crying?"

"No..." Miku lied badly.

"Please don't lie, Miku," Gumi told her, "You've been crying again, haven't you?"

For someone considered a ditz, Gumi was quite good at reading her friend's emotions. The greenette hated seeing Miku upset, but she knew why. Gumi had to suffer similar pain to Miku, along with the other Vocaloids.

Gumi hugged Miku tightly. "Everyday, we all go through the same," the greenette told the teallette. "Rin, Len, Meiko, Luka, Gakupo, everyone. Even me." Gumi also knew the implications of her existence and the hidden musical politics – _all_ of the Vocaloids knew. They were often kind to new Vocaloids because they knew they weren't often prepared for the hard slog that was the music business - the older Vocaloids pitied them and their naïvety. Gumi remembered when Yuki Kaai joined them, and when she was incredibly frightened for her. Meiko and Luka had wisely told their bosses that Yuki was too young for the business, but they dismissed them. Nowadays, Yuki tried to keep a happy face, but the other Vocaloids knew she was often upset inside.

Miku was almost close to tears again, whimpering on Gumi's shoulder. Gumi pulled out of the hug.

"Please, Miku, don't start crying again," she told her gently. "You'll look awful otherwise when you go out on stage."

"Nice to know that _someone_ cares about my career," Miku replied sarcastically, still sniffling.

"Come on Miku, don't be like that," Gumi pep-talked the teallete as she put a comforting arm around her. "You care about your fans, don't you?"

"Yeah..."

"Didn't you once say to me that they were the reason they made you feel human?"

Miku's head lifted at that sentence. "Yeah..." she repeated more happily.

"Well, dry your eyes, go out there and give your fans the best concert they've ever seen!" Gumi encouraged her friend.

"Yes!" Miku replied as happily as she could be at that moment. The teallete was glad to have Gumi as a friend – who knows what would have happened to herself if she had never met the greenette?

Miku walked back into her dressing room, no longer crying, with Gumi following her behind. Despite what she often had to put up with in the music business, she knew that she had friends to talk to, and her fans to keep her emotionally strong – because they were the reason she was more than a vocal android.

They were the reason she felt like a human being.

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**I can't help but think that this feels rushed... DX**

**Feel free to review. :P**


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